Beer dinner at home

I had planned on attending the New Belgium beer dinner at the Hastings Green Mill yesterday. However, when I found out that it was cancelled I told my wife about an idea I had: We should have our own beer dinner right at home. She agreed and seemed excited about the idea. I know I was. I decided that it would be fun to have 5 courses for the meal, and a beer with each.

While I was at work yesterday, my wife baked a loaf of beer bread for our appetizer course. Before she mixed the batter, she called to ask which beer to use. I thought about it and had her use some Odell IPA. When I got home, the house was filled with the wonderful smell of fresh baked bread. That made me even more excited about making this dinner than I already was.

I changed out of my work clothes and quickly headed over to Coborn's. The liquor store has a "build your own" six-pack section, and I thought it would be the best way to go for beer. Before I had left the house, my wife told me she was going to bake some Tastefully Simple Polka Dot Bars for dessert. They have a cookie dough type batter with butterscotch and chocolate chips. Because I already knew 2 of the courses, I would have to match 2 beers to them. For the other 3 courses, I decided to pick the beer first and match foods to those brews. I made my six-pack in the liquor store, and then I headed over to the grocery side to get the food for the remaining courses. Here is what we ended up having, in order:

1. Tastefully Simple Wheat Beer Bread Mix (made with Odell IPA) and sun-dried tomato dip served with Bell's Oberon.
2. Coborn's Deli honey mustard pasta salad served with Ommegang Hennepin.
3. Coborn's Deli mango habanero boneless wings served with New Belgium Ranger.
4. My own creation. I flattened 4 cubed pork steaks, seasoned them with Famous Dave's Rib Rub and sprinkled shredded parmesan on top. Then I rolled them into logs and wrapped them in thick-cut bacon. I grilled them to tasty perfection and served with Warsteiner Premium Dunkel.
5. Tastefully Simple Polka Dot Bars served with Breckenridge Vanilla Porter.

Wow, everything tasted good! My wife and I think that 4 of the 5 food and beer pairings turned out perfect. The flavors worked beautifully together. The only problem I had was the pairing for the main course. I knew that I wanted to grill the main course, and I would've preferred a scotch ale or smoked beer for the pairing. However, I limited myself to the "build your own" selection, which didn't have those styles. I thought I could make the Dunkel work with smokey, salty grilled food, but it tasted different than I had remembered. It was a little too sweet to pair well with the pork and bacon. Oh well, 4 out of 5 isn't bad.

I highly recommend trying something like this for yourself. It was a very rewarding experience and a tasty one at that!